The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II has lambasted northern leaders for their complicity in further impoverishing the region through their neglect of activities and policies that can improve productivity and prosperity of the region.
Sanusi said this in his key note address at the opening ceremony of the second edition of Kaduna state’s investment programme titled ‘Promoting Investment Amidst Economic Challenges.’
The prominent ruler explained that the North east and west are the poorest in the country and even in the world.
Sanusi urged the region not to use the oil rich Niger delta, commercially viable Lagos and business oriented south east to mirror the living standard of the North.
Going further, he urged Muslims to imbibe education and stop using religion and culture to set the region backward.
The former Central Bank Governor also used the occasion to raise alarm over the increasing debt in the country.
He stated that among other producing countries in Africa, Nigeria has been on a borrowing bench, “Borrowing domestically to fund current expenditure”.
He added that the growth of Nigeria was driven largely by rising commodity prices and debt, and the module has reached the logical limit such as the collapse in oil price.
He said according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the Federal Government of Nigeria is spending 66% of its interest revenue on debt, which means only 34% of its revenue is available for capital expenditure, recurrent expenditure and development.
Sanusi said the 2017 budget presented by the Federal Government is a budget that goes for more debt.
He explained that, “As a country, we must understand that the module of government borrowing and spending has reached its limit, therefore growth must only come from investment”.
The Emir crtiticised leaders that go to China to sign MoU and come back with debts forgetting their areas of development.
“A nation and a state is only transformed by vision, once that vision is lost every other thing around the vision collapses,” the Emir said.